The following references to and descriptions of prior proposals or products are not intended (to be, and are not to be construed as, statements or admissions of common general knowledge in the art. In particular, the following prior art discussion does not relate to what is commonly or well known by the person skilled in the art, but assists in the understanding of the inventive step of the present invention of which the identification of pertinent prior art proposals is but one part.
Level winders devices currently available are generally complex mechanical devices (almost exclusively utilising a double acting lead screw and carriage arrangement).
The level wind of hose or cable upon a horizontal spool is typically facilitated via a reciprocating carriage sliding from the left to right side upon a horizontal guide rail, whose length of travel is dictated by the width of the spool or the structural limits of the reel frame itself. The rail system of the level wind is typically an integral part of a special and costly reel frame structure, and is not self contained as a separable modular device. Upon this carriage is usually mounted a pair of closely located vertical rollers and a pair of closely located horizontal rollers which surround the hose at a fixed pitch typically matched to the hose diameter.
These rollers move with the reciprocating carriage and act directly upon the hose to provide lateral directional guides of low frictional resistance towards the moving hose being wrapped or unwrapped from the spool, by means of their ability to act as rollers. This reciprocating action is typically facilitated via a double acting lead screw mounted horizontally either above or below a fixed carriage rail, forming a parallel carriage rail pair, and driven in one direction by the motive force acting to rotate the spool either via a manual crank device, or by some motor power means.
Hose and cable storage reels are generally not designed to carry a load bearing cable to move objects. Storage reels must allow payout without supporting a load and in most instances are required to facilitate “free” manual payout by hand without geared resistance. The hose reel need only be able to rewind the hose or cable to be stored and is not designed to apply a pull force to any other mass.
In the Applicant's International application No. PCT/AU2011/001152 published Oct. 11, 2012 as WO2012/135890, a level winder is described that is employed using a chain-mounted dog to engage and reciprocally move a carriage carrying guide rollers. The entire contents of Application No. PCT/AU2011/001152 (WO2012/135890) are incorporated herein by reference. Applicants consider that an improvement is needed to control the dwell time of the carriage at the extremes of its travel to allow improved hose or cable placement on the reel.